The lambs with nowhere to go

They would usually be sent for slaughter but, with little domestic demand, prices are plummeting and young animals could starve when grazing runs out. Under new incentives, farmers will be paid £15 per animal which will then go to abattoirs for humane slaughter. Some animal parts may be used for making biodiesel but will not enter the human food chain. It is estimated that the 10-week scheme will cost between £5m to £6m, depending on uptake.

In the hills near Loch Scamadale, half a dozen miles south of Oban, there is little stomach for the political debate.

Angus Macfadyen, 51, is surrounded by lambs that should have already left his land. He has been farming at Bragleenmore for 30 years, having taken over the tenancy from his father, but he fears for the future and for his 28-year-old son, Allan, who had always planned to take over from him.

"This is as bad as we have known it. However bad things were in the past, I could always see some way of working our way out of it, but I just can't any more. Yesterday we put 150 of the light lambs into the welfare scheme because there is just nothing here for them. There is nowhere for them to go.

"At this time of year, I would normally be down to about 100 lambs, but with my hoggs (10-15 months old), I have over 1000 just now. So that's 10 times the normal pressure on the land, but there is no grass left. As it was, I was keeping some of them indoors because there was nothing for them outside. The land is suffering."

Mr Macfadyen added: "I would normally sell the light lambs at the beginning of September but without Europe there is just no market for them. The consumer here demands a 15kg to 16kg deadweight carcass, but in countries like Spain and Italy they prefer something lighter because they roast the whole thing or complete legs of lamb. We just don't do that here. So these lambs are for export only."

How does he feel about the light lambs ending up as biofuel, to avoid going into the food chain? "You don't really want to think about that, but you have to bite the bullet because there is nothing else we can do with them.

"As it is, there will be a big loss. We will get £15 when we would normally look for double that for the light lambs. My average for all lambs last year was £32. But I sold some big lambs on Saturday and was on average £12 down on last year. That is just unsustainable.

"On top of that, my hoggs should have been away weeks ago to winter on Bute to help them grow, but we haven't managed to move them, so they are not growing. They were supposed to be my future for the next five years, but already that is being jeopardised."

He said hill farmers like him in Argyll had been hit hard by the last FMD outbreak, adding: "It is the same again, even though it is happening hundreds of miles away, we are suffering. People say Well you are getting compensation.' What we get for the light lambs won't even begin to compensate us. We will need genuine government compensation just to survive, and that is not an exaggeration.

"I don't care whether support comes from Edinburgh or London, but if the politicians don't act there won't be hill farms here any more. If that happens, I simply don't know what I would do, nor does my son."

The Scottish Crofting Foundation yesterday also questioned why those so far from the FMD outbreak had to suffer so badly. Donald MacDonald, a director who crofts at Carbost on Skye, said: "The resumption of meat exports (on Friday) has come too late for the majority of this trade and there is no alternative to a welfare scheme The industry in the Highlands and Islands has again been brought to its knees. It is totally absurd that exports, for example from Shetland, 1000 miles from the outbreak, have been banned, while there has been no such ban affecting France, Belgium, and Ireland, which are a lot closer to the infected area. We will need to have discussions with the government to try to ensure we are never put in this position again."

There was, however, some optimism in the Hebrides, with customers across the UK now able to access fresh lamb and mutton directly from the Western Isles thanks to a new marketing initiative. The scheme, which will operate a website under the trading name of HeatherIsleMeats.com, was formed by crofters in Lewis and Harris who were fed up receiving rock-bottom prices.

Promising a 48-hour delivery time from when the product, fully butchered and chilled, leaves the abattoir in Stornoway, all the participating producers are signed up to the Quality Meat Scotland farm assurance scheme.

Kevin Kennedy, a crofter from Lewis who helped set up the website, said: "This year we saw finished lambs fit and ready for slaughter leave these islands for under £30. Even taking into account the effect of foot-and-mouth, that is just not sustainable. We know we have a quality product from a renowned environment. It's just a case of getting it out there and making it available. It's the kind of initiative we need to be looking at if crofting and livestock are to have a future in the islands."

Crofter admits series of animal abuse charges

A SHETLAND crofter has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years after admitting a horrifying catalogue of abuse yesterday.

Colin Robertson, 47, admitted seven charges of cruelty at his croft in Bardister, Walls, on February 28.

When SSPCA inspector Ron Patterson and environmental health officers turned up at the croft they found nine breeding cows, one young cow and a Limousin bull tied up without feed or water. All were extremely thin.

Procurator-fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told Lerwick Sheriff Court dung was piled up in the byre and two dead calves were found in the dung. Behind the byre they found two sheep in such poor condition they had to be put down.

Another building contained a pen with 13 lambs being kept beside a dead ewe. Another pen contained six lambs and three dead sheep. Another 25 sheep carcasses were found on the property, and a further five sheep skeletons.

Inside Robertson's house they found a flock of hens feeding off the remains of a dead sheep. There was also a tethered ram, three puppies in a wooden crate in the kitchen and a collie dog, whose "coat was covered in faeces".

Mr Mackenzie said the dog "attempted to move but it fell over and was unable to rise to its feet. That dog was immediately destroyed".

Sheriff Graeme Napier ordered him to carry out 200 hours community service and banned him from keeping animals for 10 years.

Co-accused Tommy Jamieson, 43, of Lochside Cottage, Walls, admitted three charges of cruelty to Shetland ponies on February 12 and March 1. His case has been deferred for a month for him to prove he can look after animals properly.

Breeds born to slower growth

• Light lambs come from small mountain breeds that inhabit the hills of Scotland and Wales and the moors of England. The cold weather of such areas means that these lambs are born slightly later in the year and grow at a slower rate throughout summer.

• The ancient light lamb breeds in Scotland are the Scottish Blackface and the Cheviot.

• Light lamb is not a popular choice in Britain but their strong taste has always been appreciated in both Greece and Spain, where they are spit-roasted whole.

• Scotland's hill and upland sheep farming sector has suffered a continued depression since the late 1930s but it is of marked importance to the Scottish economy.

• Recent estimates suggest around 42% of the genes of British lamb are derived from the hill breeds.

• Hill sheep farming uses nearly half the land in Scotland. Over 10 million acres of mountain and heathland reportedly carry around two million breeding ewes.

• The hooded crow is the key predator of the Highland hill sheep, blamed for the killing of large numbers of newborn lambs.